“Maine 2017”
6/23/17, “A Summer to Remember”
Kennebunk, Maine
Summer has Officially begun. Once again, I find myself in Maine to begin
the summer. Whether it be Lubec (2013),
Mars Hill (2014), Augusta (2015), Ogunquit (2016), or Kennebunk (2017), it is
the second half of the dateline that unites it all, my first trip of the
summer, beginning the summer where summer begins, here in Maine. The list of trips I have planned
is nowhere near as expansive as previous summers, but it will
definitely be a summer to remember.
With
no more school to worry about, and a light summer of travel, it will be a
summer of freedom, to do the things in the city I have always found myself too
busy to do, to go the places with friends I have wanted to go but never found
the time, to never have to worry about being too busy to do anything for that
matter. It will be a summer to watch
movies in the park, to visit the islands other than Manhattan, to smoke and
drink on rooftops. It will be a summer
to enjoy all the city and suburbs have to offer.
Of course there will be travel, too, and this
trip follows up on two excellent trips since Memorial Day, the first to Queen
Charlotte, one of the most relaxing places I have ever been, and the second to
the islands of fire and ice, which ranked as an all-time top five trip,
Greenland easily earning the title of the most beautiful place in the world to
me. Next weekend will be an extra
special trip for me, the trip where I will finally have accomplished my goal of
visiting every World Heritage Site in North America, along with every Canadian
province. After that, a weekend in San
Francisco. Then, various road trips to
Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
That certainly seems like a summer to remember as described already, but
how it will end is what makes it truly epic.
After all of that, comes the big trip, the one I have been planning for
five years, ever since I began this quest: a 16-day trip to Hawaii and the
South Pacific. There this quest will
come to an end, at which point I will be greeted by my best friend, with whom I
will celebrate my 30th Birthday.
Five years have all led to this.
It is sure to be a summer to remember.
Okay, so, as for Day 0, well, as is my tradition, I will actually start
with Night -1. It was another pizza and
movie night with the K-Man, but with one minor variation. With no good movies to see in theatres, we
opted to watch one at my place instead.
We first met my coworker at Urbanspace for a drink before heading to our
usual spot, CPK. There, we once more got
appetizers and our usual pizzas, along with a pair of Moscow Mules.
I ate way too much, and we went back to my
place to smoke cigars (LFD Andalusian Bull) and aquavit that I brought back
from Iceland as we watched “Gentleman’s Agreement.” It was epic on every level, and the movie was
excellent. I had to get up early, as I
needed to get to the office at 7 AM so that I could leave at 4 PM.
I had a Danish pastry (again, not a Danish)
for breakfast, having developed an addiction for such things ever since my Trip
of Ice and Fire. It was a slow day at
work, and the office was almost empty, but I got done what I needed to do.
Lunch was my traditional pre-departure lunch
from Hop Won, boneless spareribs and sweet and sour chicken, along with an egg
roll, fried rice, and a seltzer. After
lunch, knowing that no one was in the office who might complain if I came back
smelling, I had a Romeo y Julieta.
I
left the office at 4 PM and took the train up to North White Plains where I got
the car before driving to my parents’ house to meet Stu, whom my parents had
just met for the first time. A light
snack was ready for us, though the quantity of it that I consumed turned it
into my dinner. It consisted of various
breads, meats, cheeses, and jam. I got a
coffee for the road, and we were off at 6 PM.
As soon as we got on the highway, I lit up a Davidoff Yamasa Toro. The traffic was familiar, the passenger
unfamiliar. Finding the familiar within
the unfamiliar, and experiencing the unfamiliar within the familiar,
remember. We wound up taking a slightly different
route than I had taken on previous drives, but none of it mattered, as we wound
up at I-95 N in New Hampshire before we reached the familiar bridge into
Maine. We had stopped on the way at a
Wendy’s in Connecticut so that Stu could get dinner, but a handful of his fries
and a scoop of his Frosty was sufficient to supplement the “light” snack I had
had earlier. I got a coffee for myself.
After Stu was done with his meal, I lit up a
Prensado, and we listened to Howard Stern.
That brought us into Maine, where I soon saw the very familiar sign that
welcomed us to Maine. We took some
ceremonial pictures and then drove the relatively short distance to our hotel,
a brand new Hampton Inn in Kennebunk. We
settled into our room, and then I went back down with my pipe and a beer. They weren’t set up yet, but they gave me the
royal treatment, finding me a can opener to use to open my beer and bringing a
chair out for me to sit in the smoking area.
I headed out there, where I sat down, lit up an Ardor, and proceeded to
write this entry, which I will now close so that I can publish and get to
sleep, as we have a packed day tomorrow.
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